Nanaimo Introduction

For those of you who don't know much about Nanaimo, check out this marketing video.

Marketing aside, it really does look as lovely as on film. The waterfront is really beautiful and, when it's not raining (!) it makes for a pretty idyllic walk to work.The final frame (eating a Nanaimo Bar in front of an old building with columns) is actually taken at the great coffee shop 'round the corner from my office. The west coast really DOES have better coffee and the Salt Spring Coffee served there is one of my favourite things about downtown Nanaimo.

It has been 7 months since I arrived on Vancouver Island, my journey bookended by dual snowstorms. That was just the beginning of a whirlwind journey that has not let up. It started with a flurry of last minute wedding preparations and treacherous Christmas road trips and continued to a new job, a funeral, another wedding, home renovations, weekend guests, relocation of both sets of parents (mine to Saskatchewan and Jeff's to 6.2 km down the street), all while tending a garden on steroids and learning how to navigate life successfully along side another person.

I never thought I would be so happy, moving for love. I never thought that spinster Stefanie could successfully live with someone else. I never thought it could be THIS beautiful, living a block away from the ocean. I never thought I would live in a place where my herb garden grew 12 months a year.

I also never thought I would be so miserable, missing the familiar people and places that made up my life in Waterloo. I completely underestimated how much I would grieve the losses of my SAFA women's group, church, WNMC dinner group, work, care group, duet partner, adopted Albrecht family, neighbours and friends. I never thought I would go to bed, yearning for the tastes of Al Madina's hummus or Waterloo County Maple Syrup, the energy of the Farmer's Market , the sound of Mennonite singing, and the feel of familiarity that comes from knowing exactly where to get a hair cut, a shoe fixed, a new purse or decent Indian spices.

I never thought, in the genuine bliss of newly wedded-ness, I would wake up for weeks thinking, "This has been fun!! Now... when do I get to go home?"

I have done terribly, staying in touch with the people I love. This blog is simply, a way to share what is happening in Unger-Stanway life and to try to stay better in touch.

Enjoy! And please- do come visit. Even if you don't bring hummus.